While the attempted takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft started back in January, the process took a rather large formal step forward this week. The collective shareholders of Activision Blizzard had not officially given their stamp of approval on the merger and moving the World of Warcraft studio under Microsoft's umbrella but a vote on Thursday cleared that particular hurdle.
Since Microsoft first made the announcement that it was going to attempt to buy Activision Blizzard the process has been moving right along, despite the fact that the deal getting officially done is likely going to take some more time. There are also going to be several more boxes that have to be checked in order for the Call of Duty company to officially come under Xbox chief Phil Spencer's purview. The shareholders' vote was one of those important boxes since Activision is a publicly-traded company, even if it appears it was mostly a formality.
The official approval of the deal was announced by Activision following a special meeting of shareholders while the announcement added that the vast majority of those voting were in support of the deal. The official tally saw more than 98 percent voting in the affirmative which was especially noteworthy simply because there was a rather vocal group of Activision shareholders who actually sued back in February to try and stop the acquisition.
In announcing the outcome, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick hailed the vote as a sign that stockholders confirmed the belief that when everything is official it will allow the company to create even better value for its players. He added that the firm will also be able to offer "even greater opportunities" for its employees. That comment comes while Kotick's firm is still dealing with the fallout of numerous allegations of misconduct by Activision higher-ups.
It is in fact the allegations of misconduct that played at least a part in Microsoft deciding that the time was ripe to make the big offer that has now been officially accepted.
While the vote by shareholders is another important step toward Activision Blizzard coming under the control of Microsoft the deal is still not officially official. There has still been plenty of talk that the FTC and perhaps even Congress will be taking a good hard look at all the numbers.
Source: Business Wire